What boards are disappearing or merging?

[champagnebrain]

Is there a list of potential culls?

There really should be

They did a few a week or so ago.

I think The Royal Family might have survived, not sure about the others.

Not providing MNetters with a list was deliberate policy (it was questioned then, and MNHQ responded that they're only interested in resomses from within the topic).

Teenagers & larger families are merging in with parenting

I don’t have teens yet but do have 5 dc. To me they’re both fairly niche topics that will now probably be buried in toddler & baby posts where they would previously had a decent amount of replies from pole pole that have been there (along with any other boards that are be put under it too)

Seems bonkers to merge some because they aren't "busy" enough.
There are threads I read because they are in the teenage section that I would totally ignore if they were in the parenting section. Maybe get rid of parenting instead

Oh fgs, bloody phone.

Would previously have had.

People, not pole pole

For the love of God, please remove the Surrogacy board. It's an embarrassment.

I did my best a few years ago (under other usernames... we had DC through surrogacy) but it's a vacuum into which the ill-informed can fall with none of the common sense that generally keeps mumsnet on an even keel.

Look at the traffic stats! It goes weeks without a post, other than trolls from eastern european surrogacy agencies. Those posting there would be better served in general 'becoming a parent' chat.

But I will still do my best to help them of course!

I think the main problem is that posters post on boards like AIBU for traffic. I wish they would post on the right boards in the first place.

MNHQ really need to sort AIBU out.

As a parenting site the parenting sections should be left as they are.
Merge non parenting boards if there is a real need to merge anything.

Hands off the weather section unless it's to move it to a more prominent position.

Maybe having only chat and aibu would sort the traffic problem

Finding out which ones MNetters think are redundant seems a better way round than MN quietly deleting some.

I think Sleb Twaddle and the Science/Nature Club were also both in their sights.

I'd quite like I see a proper consultation about a cull. Not least as many topics appeared from popular demand, so having a say about what topics there are is something that we already have.

Our ideas of what's valued might be very different to MNHQ's (remember the reversals of changes before, when things that MNHQ thought were peripheral were actually much liked features)

Keep teenagers please. It’s a lifeline.

I hope @MNHQ will be commenting on this thread

Morning.
The idea of posting a merge proposal in relevant groups is that we get to hear directly from the users of those groups. At the moment, we're merging some of the 'For sale' topics because they are so little used. To prepare for this, we posted in each of those groups and left a few weeks to collect comments.

I don't think we'll be merging the Teenagers section - the feedback from users of that area demonstrates how useful and valued the section is. So our challenge now is to increase the profile of that area of the site so that more people can find it and use it as a valuable resource.

As always, all comments are welcome - our main concern is to make the Talk boards more user-friendly and useful for both regular and new users.

TBH teenagers is quite easy to find.

The problem you have is a large amount of people only read active threads, this means AIBU and chat take up quite a bit of that. It would be beneficial to restrict the number of AIBU allowed on the active thread at one time (maybe 3), leaving room and time for some of the other boards to appear there before being bumped off active threads.

Yes, I get the idea that you want to hear from users in the group.

But that doesn't mean you cannot also get ideas from MNetters in general as well.

After all, we might surprise you with useful ideas of which really are redundant, and which, even if barely used are a useful resource and valued by users.

Moving threads to topics would make them an even more useful resource. No-one is going to plough through AIBU when they could bring Wes the place where many threads will be reasonably relevant.

I don't think we'll be merging the Teenagers section - the feedback from users of that area demonstrates how useful and valued the section is. So our challenge now is to increase the profile of that area of the site so that more people can find it and use it as a valuable resource.

Brilliant. May I suggest having teenagers 'visible' when you click on the Talk menu without needing to expand.
e.g. Being a Parent: Parenting, Sleep, Teenagers

@MichaelMumsnet but as AuntieStella said you may get some ideas from the general users that you may not have thought of. And potentially remind us what's on offer.
I tend to just look at Active unless I have a specific issue.
But there is room for some streamlining.
Why have Baking and Cakes and Bakes for example?

Arts and Crafts Pictures can easily be merged with Atrs and
Crafts - it was only set up in the days before pictures were allowed on all threads.

That’s a good idea about active..... or perhaps the side box could be changed to AIBU/Chat trending and active could be most active threads from the other boards?

That's a good idea I think Tunt.

I wouldn't want topics removed from "active" as that's really the only place I look for threads. I like "active conversations" to be all on one place.

You could take AIBU out of active as people can just go straight to it if that's what they're looking for. Then some of the other topics would stand half a chance in active.

I was about to come and post exactly the same as SoupDragon about Arts and Crafts and A&C Pictures.